The passage for our devotional reading today is another portion of the "Olivet Discourse", the message Jesus gave to His disciples during "Passion Week".

After teaching all day, on Monday afternoon of "Passion Week", Jesus started back towards the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus where He was staying, the days before His crucifixion.

As He left the Temple Mount area He had told the disciples that Herod's Temple would be destroyed and there would not be "a stone upon a stone". The disciples questioned Jesus as to when this Temple destruction would take place and they wanted Him to give them some signs of His Second Coming.

In Matthew 24 the Lord does not give any information about the Temple, as to when it would be destroyed. Jesus, in the account of the Lord's message on the Mount of Olives, in Mark 13and Luke 21 does respond to the first question from the disciples.

The Lord did answer the question, requesting signs of His Second Coming back to earth, Matthew 24:4-26. In the passage we are reading today Jesus tells of His Second Coming, verses 27-31.

Verse 29 reveals that the Second Coming takes place, after the Tribulation Period. Remember, the Rapture is not mentioned in Matthew 24. The Lord's return to earth when He steps on the Mount of Olives, Zechariah 14:4, is what is in focus in this passage.

After telling of His return to earth, actually to the spot where He was seated teaching those gathered to listen to Him, then as He often did, the Lord used a parable to draw some conclusions.

At the peak of the Mount of Olives there are a number of fig trees. Remember, the time was the spring, since Passover was just two days away. As Jesus noticed the "fig trees" He would use them as an illustration.

Let me say Jesus is not referring to the "fig tree" as the nation of Israel. The "fig tree" is an example of how in the spring the new leaves will pop up on the bare limbs after the winter.

Jesus said that like the new leaves on the "fig tree", the signs, prophecies, that He gave that day would precede His Second Coming. Then Jesus said, "This generation, the ones seeing these things that He had talked about, verses 4 to 31, this generation shall not pass away until all these things be fulfilled", verse 34.

In other words the people that see all the signs, Matthew 24:4-31, when they see these prophecies being fulfilled, look up because they will be the generation alive when Jesus Christ comes back.

Remember, the Rapture takes place at least seven years before the Second Coming. I believe we are "the generation" seeing the signs happening and "the generation" that will see Jesus Christ come back.

PRAYER THOT: Help me Lord, to alert as many people as possible, alive in this generation, to be prepared for the Rapture, which happens before the Second Coming and could happen today.